Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73302 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73302 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“Then let’s figure this out and bring him down. These are some of the people I’m looking at.” I grabbed the files from my desk and handed them to Zach. He let his fingers brush mine as he took them, and heat raced through me. I could barely get my next words out. “I’m going to switch to looking at patrons while you check those out.”
Zach flipped through the top file and frowned. “I need access to everything. I need to get into your system.”
He was already so deep I didn’t think I’d ever get him out. “That’s not an option.”
“I’m not going to fuck up anything. I swear.”
“No, I—”
“I can work faster that way. And I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
“You know how you thought I’d put over your desk?”
How the hell was I supposed to work with him putting images like that in my head? “Yes.”
“That’s how we’ll celebrate when we find the mole.”
I opened my desk, pulled out my backup laptop, and started it up. This was my last chance to turn back, but I didn’t. I handed him full access to a Theriot family business.
23
ZACH
Rafe and I had been poring over files for hours. He’d had pizza delivered for dinner from one of the restaurants in the casino, but we hadn’t talked as we ate. We’d kept working, which was for the best since I had no idea what to say to Rafael if we weren’t working, fighting, or fucking. And neither of us wanted to slow down. We were going to find the mole soon. I was almost certain I was on the right track. I knew to follow the money. I’d just gone to the wrong place.
“Rafe, what do you know about…?” I stopped speaking when I realized he was sound asleep. He’d moved to the couch hours ago, and I’d taken over his desk, where I had access to larger screens and could check multiple angles at once. More than once, I’d looked over at him, and he’d met my gaze, and I’d considered shoving the papers out of his hand, climbing on top of him, and taking him right there, but I’d told him getting fucked would be his reward, and I meant to stick to that.
I was sure he’d been up for nearly thirty-six hours at this point, so I wasn’t going to wake him. He needed at least a few hours’ sleep.
I rose and moved toward the couch, being as quiet as I could. I took the laptop from his hands. He protested but didn’t fully wake up. I moved the papers he’d piled up around him to the floor and swung his legs up onto the couch so he could lie down.
His eyes fluttered open. “Zach?”
“Go back to sleep. It’s fine.”
“I…”
I leaned down and kissed the top of his head. He smiled as he closed his eyes. If there had been a blanket in the office, I would have tucked it around him, but he looked comfortable enough. I stood there watching him sleep, marveling at how much softer he looked. If he’d been in bed, I didn’t think I could have stopped myself from crawling in next to him.
I brushed the backs of my fingers over his cheek, then turned away. I had work to do, and I didn’t know how to handle this need to take care of him, watch him, touch him, even when sex wasn’t an option.
Rafe was still sleeping soundly when I found all the pieces I needed. I knew who the mole was. It all made sense now. Sending in a high roller would have been too risky, too potentially obvious. Sending in a number cruncher was much more subtle than I’d expected, considering how irrationally Ivanov had behaved the last time he’d surfaced. He exposed himself in the open with the thinnest of disguises. Now we were closing in again, and this time, he wasn’t going to escape.
Rafe stirred on the couch, as if he felt the buzz of energy around me. “Zach?”
“I’ve got him.”
He rubbed his eyes. “What?”
“I found our guy.”
Instantly, he sat up, seeming fully awake. “Are you serious?”
“Very. He’s good. He’s really fucking good, but I’ve got him.”
Rafe scowled. He didn’t like me complimenting another man, and that did things to me it shouldn’t. “He’s not as good as us, or he wouldn’t have been caught.”
I grinned. “As good as me, you mean.”
“You’re only here at my discretion.”
“I’m going to make you beg again.”
He scowled and waved that threat away. “Show me who it is.”
He came around the desk and stood behind me as I pulled the guy’s bio up on the screen. “This is the guy, Joseph LeBlanc. He was hired around three months ago as an accountant.”
Rafe frowned. “How did you find him?”
I liked that he didn’t question if I was right, just how I’d figured it out. “When we didn’t find any good candidates among the high rollers, I realized there was another way to ‘follow the money.’”